Over four decades in financial services, I have seen considerable changes in the questions clients bring to their advisers. Investment performance remains important, but it is rarely the whole conversation. Clients want to understand how their wealth will support retirement, what they can afford to give their children and what happens if their circumstances change.
For international clients, those questions become more demanding. A pension may sit in one country, a property in another and the intended beneficiaries somewhere else. A decision that appears sensible when viewed through one jurisdiction can create difficulties elsewhere.
That places a responsibility on our profession. Technical knowledge is essential, but we must also help clients understand how their decisions connect. Increasingly, the value of advice lies in making those connections visible.
Start with the family’s objectives
Tax changes often provide the reason for a client to contact an adviser. They can also provide a useful reason for advisers to revisit existing arrangements. However, the discussion needs to reach beyond the immediate rule change.
Before considering a withdrawal, gift or restructuring exercise, we need to understand what the client wants their money to achieve.
How much financial independence do they want to retain? Are they supporting adult children? Could they return to the UK? Does their partner understand the arrangements? How would their plans change following bereavement, illness or a substantial fall in investment values?
The answers determine whether a technically available course of action is appropriate.
A client may be keen to pass wealth to the next generation, yet uncomfortable with losing access to the capital. Another may be focused on reducing a future tax liability while underestimating the cost of a long retirement. Exploring those tensions is a central part of the adviser’s role.
Retirement and inheritance belong in the same conversation
Retirement planning and estate planning are closely connected. A decision about which assets to draw on affects the resources available later in life and the wealth eventually passed to beneficiaries.
For advisers, this means looking carefully at the assumptions behind an existing plan.
Was the strategy built around preserving a particular pension? Does it assume a certain order of withdrawals will remain appropriate indefinitely? Have family circumstances changed since beneficiary nominations were last reviewed?
The purpose of that review is to establish whether the reasoning still holds. It should leave the client with a clearer understanding of their position, including where retaining an existing arrangement remains appropriate.
International circumstances add further considerations. The treatment of an asset during the client’s lifetime may differ from its treatment on death. A move abroad can introduce new reporting obligations, succession issues and questions about whether existing providers can continue servicing the relationship.
These matters require coordination with suitably qualified tax and legal specialists. Advisers must recognise where their own permissions and expertise end, while helping the client understand which questions need resolving.
Make the review specific
A general invitation to discuss financial planning is easy to postpone. A clear explanation of why a review matters is more useful.
For someone approaching retirement, the starting point may be how to turn accumulated assets into sustainable income. For a couple considering relocation, it may be the financial decisions that need attention before departure. For a client supporting children overseas, it may be how much they can give without weakening their own position.
This requires firms to understand their client base beyond portfolio size and annual review dates.
Clients whose plans depend on leaving pensions untouched, those with assets across several countries, unmarried couples and families with children from previous relationships may all have particular issues to explore.
The communication should explain the relevance calmly. Complexity gives us a reason to offer clarity; it should never become a device for creating anxiety.
Explain the trade-offs in ordinary language
Our profession sometimes makes advice harder to understand than it needs to be.
Clients need enough information to make an informed decision, presented in a way they can absorb. That means explaining the practical consequences before moving into the technical detail.
If a client gives away capital now, what might that mean for their spending later? If they change the source of retirement income, how could that affect tax, investment risk and their remaining assets? If they move country, which parts of the plan need reviewing first?
Relevant examples and clear next steps help clients engage with these questions. So does acknowledging uncertainty. An adviser should be comfortable explaining that an outcome depends on future spending, market returns or specialist advice that has yet to be obtained.
Trust grows when clients understand both the recommendation and its limits.
Use technology to improve understanding
Cash flow modelling can make an important contribution here. It allows advisers and clients to explore how a plan responds to different assumptions, including higher spending, a longer retirement or weaker investment returns.
Its usefulness depends on the quality of those assumptions and how clearly they are explained. A projection should support a discussion about possibilities and resilience. Clients must understand that it is an illustration rather than a prediction.
Other technology can reduce administration and give advisers more time to listen. That is valuable, provided firms maintain appropriate oversight, protect client information and check the accuracy of what their systems produce.
The human judgement remains essential. Software can model the financial effect of a gift; understanding why a parent feels obliged to make it requires a conversation.
Make the value of advice easier to recognise
Many people who could benefit from advice do not recognise themselves as potential clients. They may associate our work primarily with investment selection, or assume their circumstances are too straightforward to warrant a discussion.
We need to describe our services through the decisions people actually face: retiring, relocating, supporting family and preparing for an uncertain future.
We should also be clear about the scope of our work, the fees involved and the support a client can expect. Where a focused piece of advice is appropriate and available, explaining that option may help someone take the first step.
For international advisers, there is a particular opportunity to demonstrate the value of coordination. Clients need someone who can see the wider financial picture, identify gaps and work constructively with other professionals.
The firms that do this well will build relationships through the usefulness of their advice and the care with which it is delivered. As clients’ financial lives become more complicated, that combination will matter increasingly.
John Westwood is founder and chairman of Blacktower Financial Management Group
